Hearing aid devices are used to enhance or improve the quality of life for the user. These devices may amplify certain sounds that have been unheard to some degree by the user in the past. Because each user of a hearing aid has varying degrees of hearing loss, these devices are programmable for adaptation to the user's needs.
Users of hearing aids continue to demand that the size of the hearing aids decrease. A small hearing aid device worn by a user may not be as noticeable to other people. As a result, any reservations the user may have about wearing the device in public may be decreased.
Hearing aid devices may include a shell that carries or houses some of the components required for the device to operate. For example, the shell may carry microphones, a central processing unit (CPU), a battery, etc. As hearing aids decrease in size, it may not be possible to decrease the size of each component that is required for the device to operate.
Further, as hearing aid devices become smaller, controls on the device that interface with the user may also become smaller. These small controls may cause difficulties for a user who desires to actuate these controls because they have become too small. For example, controls used by the user to adjust the volume of sound being output by the hearing aid device have become increasingly small and difficult for a user to actuate. These controls cannot simply increase in size because of the desire to continue producing smaller and smaller hearing aid devices. As a result, benefits may be realized by providing a large control surface for a user to interface with a control element of a hearing aid.